I also do technical, creative writing, and essay pieces which are not included in this blog; let's just say I have different nuances on subjects like Santa Claus. And I'm not simply talking about the merchandising angle on a religious holiday. Rather, I'm more concerned about the concept of a quid pro quo for doing good things. Not to mention expectations; for instance, I was watching a drama the other night about a Depression-era father whom couldn't afford to pay, in upfront cash as the vendor demanded, for a red bicycle, his older daughter's most pressing wish for Christmas and watched another family of means take off with what he wanted to buy. The poor couple tried the best they could to make a good Christmas for their kids, but the daughter was heartbroken that Santa somehow had forgotten her: Was it something she did or said? Of course, there are many worthwhile charities and organizations (e.g., Toys for Tots) that try to meet that need.
I'm tilting at windmills if I think I'm going to transform a seasonal retail orgy on which many retailers depend. I'm not really interested in trying to disprove the legend by pointing to things like the physical impossibility of one person fulfilling billions of dreams overnight. I'm more concerned about something that becomes more of a ritual, even work buddies feeling pressure to exchange "gifts".
Let me give an example of what I regard as a gift. When I graduated from OLL with a double major, fellow philosophy major Bob Want gave me an unexpected gift--a paperback edition of Will Durant's "The Story of Philosophy". Now, to be honest, I already owned a hardcover copy of the same book. But to this day, I still have Bob's gift. I would give away my own original copy before Bob's. Bob's is not for sale at any price. I haven't seen Bob since graduation, but we shared a bonding experience as the OLL philosophy graduates.
I think the concept of gift is trivialized by quantity and mass merchandizing--say, the latest hot toy or electronics device. But what do you see people first look for after a natural disaster? Almost inevitably they are looking for something of a personal nature--a wedding album, family pictures, etc. You can always replace an Ipod and its stored songs, but not the scarf Jane knitted for you or Dick's vase from summer camp.
That being said, as much as I love Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", the 101 variations make the story a cliche. So are all the Santa Claus-theme flicks (with the exception of "Miracle on 34th Street"). However, the following two films I saw for the first time this season make my list for the 2008 Holiday Flick "Ronalds":
- "A Christmas Visitor". A 2002 TV movie with Will Devane and Meredith Baxter playing heartbroken parents of a young man whom lost his life in the first Gulf War and his younger sister facing a worrisome health crisis. Devane comes across a hitchhiking Gulf War veteran when his car gets stuck in the mud on the way home. Devane brings him home, asking him to go along with the idea that the stranger met his son while in Iraq in order to comfort his wife and daughter. Some strange things seem to happen during the veteran's short stay at the family home, and he seems to go a little beyond the story Devane was expecting. What is this guy's angle? Or is this encounter more than it appears?
- "The Note". A 2007 TV movie. A female newspaper columnist is told to get her readership ratings up. In the aftermath of a tragic plane crash, the columnist comes across a note of paternal forgiveness in a baggie which had originally contained Christmas cookies along the beach near the crash site. The columnist decides to search for the intended recipient of the note. A national TV reporter decides he wants to uncover the recipient first. A fellow male columnist expresses some interest in a relationship with her, but the widow, pregnant at the time of her husband's death, is haunted by the fact 16 years earlier she had put her subsequently delivered baby daughter up for adoption. What, if anything, does revealing the identity of the note's intended recipient (simply known as "T") have to do with the reporter's past?
